It’s Tournament Time 2025

Even a cursory reading of previous rants here would make it clear that I hold the NCAA as an institution in low regard.  Nevertheless, I have also said that the fact that the NCAA stages the best sporting event of the year mitigates the fecklessness of the organization to the point that I cannot call for its complete disbanding.  Today starts the meaty portion of that great sporting event; today and tomorrow are an orgy of college basketball; by the time the final game on Sunday is in the books, there will have been 48 games in 4 days.  Bring it on …

Here are a couple of observations about four first round games:

1. Oregon/Liberty:  The last time these schools met in an athletic contest of some notoriety, the sport was football, and the result was a complete mismatch.  Will history repeat?
2. Louisville/Creighton:  The game is in Lexington, KY which is – geographically – almost a home game for Louisville.  Usually such a privilege is given to a team seeded #1 or #2 in a bracket, but Louisville is seeded #8.  Interesting.  And by the way, the Cardinals’ fans may not feel totally welcome in Lexington before and after the game.
3. Gonzaga/Georgia:  Call this one the “Battle of the Bulldogs”.
4. UConn/Oklahoma:  I think I counted correctly; I believe the Sooners lost 13 conference games this season.  And back in the early days of the season, the Huskies lost 3 games in 3 days in one of those Hawaiian extravaganzas.  Nonetheless, here they are …

I want to identify my “Sleeper Team” for the tournament.  That would be the Maryland Terrapins.  The Terps open tomorrow against Grand Canyon in the Seattle cluster and they are the #4 seed in the West bracket.  The Terps can hang with just about anyone so long as their starting five can all play for more than 32 minutes each.  Any injury or foul trouble that forces the team to “go to the bench” for extended minutes would be most problematic, but when the starting five can stay on the floor, Maryland is a tough out.

Switching gears …  I spoke on the phone with an old friend yesterday who said that I should use the start of March Madness to produce my personal All-Time College Basketball Team.  I said I would give that a go overnight and here is my list.  I restricted the list to players I have seen meaning the start of my observation window was the mid-1950s.  I have selected my Top Ten players and then “filled out the roster” with another five players and then the tough choice to be made on the final slot.  These are listed alphabetically not in any rank ordering:

1. Bill Bradley – Princeton
2. Wilt Chamberlain – Kansas
3. Patrick Ewing – Georgetown
4. Kareem Abdul Jabbar – UCLA
5. Michael Jordan – UNC
6. Christian Laettner – Duke
7. Oscar Robertson – Cincy
8. Bill Russell – University of San Francisco
9. David Thompon – NC State
10. Bill Walton – UCLA

The next five names “fill out the roster” to 15 players:

1. Elgin Baylor – Seattle
2. Larry Bird – Indiana State
3. Magic Johnson – Michigan State
4. Pete Maravich – LSU
5. Jerry West – West Virginia

The big debate I had was selecting two players from a list that had Elgin Baylor, Pete Maravich and Jerry Lucas on it.  It was a very close call for me, but I called Lucas as the guy on the outside.

Finally, as the Tournament kicks off, here is an observation from Hunter S. Thompson:

“I have warned many times about the guaranteed dangers of betting with your heart instead of your head – big darkness, soon come – but every once in a while you get a fair chance to have it both ways, and the annual NCAA basketball Tournament is one of them.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………